‘College town pizza,’ Lawrence, Kansas, 1992

To me, “college town pizza” (University of Kansas — Rock Chalk Jayhawk!) will always be Pizza Shuttle, Gumby’s (since closed), Papa Keno’s, and Rudy’s. (Pyramid was for folks in the Greek system.)

Rudy’s was as close to what J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, writing on Slice, describes as “college town pizza,” which he defines as pizza being over-topped and over-cheesed. Except that kids at KU tended to not overtop it — at least not those who I knew. Not because we were enlightened pizza purists looking to avoid a “garbage pie” but because it cost more. We were cheap bastards. Like most college kids. Hell, we’d rather spend our money on beer. (In my case, beer and pinball.)

Pizza Shuttle and Gumby’s were delivery and take-out only. I don’t know anyone who ever went to pick it up. If you owned a car, by the time you were in a state to actually crave Pizza Shuttle or Gumby’s, you had no business behind the wheel. Continue reading “‘College town pizza,’ Lawrence, Kansas, 1992”

OMD, Gen X, and Frank Frazetta

A few things tied together with a very thin thread …

First, I read A. O. Scott’s “Gen X Has a Midlife Crisis” in the New York Times this morning. Online initially and then, yes, switching over to my iPhone when I had to leave the house for work. (Scott says, “I see you rolling your eyes. That’s right, you: the one in the fake-vintage rock ’n’ roll T-shirt and thick-framed glasses reading this on an iPhone at the sidelines of your daughter’s soccer game.”)

Anyway, thick-framed glasses, check. iPhone, check. Daughter, not yet. The passage that stung (emphasis, mine)… Continue reading “OMD, Gen X, and Frank Frazetta”

’80s music videos with 3-wheeler ATVs

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In the 1980s, specifically around ’83, there was a bit of a mania for ATVs, specifically three-wheelers. The three-wheeler, however, was shown to be dangerous and was quickly replaced by its more surefooted cousin, the four-wheeler. But before the big, loud, motorized tricycle was yanked from the scene it would be immortalized in at least two iconic videos of the decade: Continue reading “’80s music videos with 3-wheeler ATVs”